Martyr

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The Greek word is, μάρτυς, and is very frequently translated “witness”; a martyr is one who meets with death because of the witness he bears. Stephen was a martyr (Acts 22:2020And when the blood of thy martyr Stephen was shed, I also was standing by, and consenting unto his death, and kept the raiment of them that slew him. (Acts 22:20)); also Antipas (Rev. 2:1313I know thy works, and where thou dwellest, even where Satan's seat is: and thou holdest fast my name, and hast not denied my faith, even in those days wherein Antipas was my faithful martyr, who was slain among you, where Satan dwelleth. (Revelation 2:13)). The “two witnesses” in Revelation 11 will also be martyrs, and Babylon the Great is charged with being drunken “with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus” (Rev. 17:66And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration. (Revelation 17:6)). The history of the church records the faithfulness of many of these. There can be no doubt that many of the Old Testament saints also died as martyrs. Jezebel cut off the prophets of Jehovah (1 Kings 18:1313Was it not told my lord what I did when Jezebel slew the prophets of the Lord, how I hid an hundred men of the Lord's prophets by fifty in a cave, and fed them with bread and water? (1 Kings 18:13)). The Lord charged the Pharisees with being the children of them which killed the prophets (Matt. 23:3131Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets. (Matthew 23:31)); and in the “cloud of witnesses” spoken of in Hebrews 11, were some of whom it is said “others were tortured [literally broken on the wheel], not accepting deliverance,” as many martyrs since then might have saved their lives by denying their faith. Christ Himself was the faithful and true witness (Rev. 1:55And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, (Revelation 1:5); Rev. 3:1414And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God; (Revelation 3:14)); and He said to His persecutors, “Ye seek to kill Me, because My word hath no place in you....ye seek to kill Me, a man that hath told you the truth” (John 8:37,4037I know that ye are Abraham's seed; but ye seek to kill me, because my word hath no place in you. (John 8:37)
40But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God: this did not Abraham. (John 8:40)). Thus the Lord Jesus was the true Martyr, though His death comprehended much more than dying as a martyr; namely, atonement.